Pink
by jess1234
Summary: The challenge: Oz, Xander, sunshine, a pond, watermelon. Short, sweet, fluffy. (Includes the discovery that watermelons are rather dodgy to describe.)


Title: Pink  
  
Author: Jessikast  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Warnings: Slash. Set at some unspecified happy time late season sixish. In this happy little place, although Xander and Anya are broken up, they get along. And Willow and Tara are together. It's just a Scooby gathering. Like, a reunion.  
  
The Challenge: "Xander, Oz, sunshine, watermelon, pond."  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine. No profit.  
  
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The sun is perfect. It's late in the day, and Xander knows that in an hour or so there is going to be a spectacular sunset. Right now, though, there is a golden heat beating down on his skin, browning skin that is already tan from his construction job. The large flat rock he is sitting on is radiating back the sun it's absorbed during the day. He feels wonderfully lazy and relaxed.   
  
The girls are in the shallows of the pond. Xander had joined Dawn, Willow and Tara in the water from the start. (Well, Willow had had to get out for frequent reapplications of sunscreen.) Buffy and Anya had both begun by demurely lying on towls, working on their tans, but a few well-placed splashes had resulted in them joining the games. Now, however the females are sitting in the shallowest water, talking lazily. Willow is using Tara as a back rest. Dawn is piling pretty pebbles into a pyramid shape, and Anya is lecturing her on the mystic uses of pyramids.  
  
Xander, however, is a man. He doesn't feel the need to gossip. Much. Well, normally he would, but there is something calming in sitting back here, and watching the girls in the sunlight, seeing blonde hair turn into haloes and water rippling against bikini clad bodies. (A couple of the bodies he shouldn't really be watching, but it's warm and lazy, and he's not thinking about it too much.) Besides, his company isn't talking much either. In fact, he just notices that his company is gone. He looks around to see Company walking back from where the car is parked, a string bag of fruit in his hand.  
  
"Hey," says Oz.  
  
"Hey," says Xander. Oz tosses some apples and nectarines to the girls. The reaction times are amusing to see. Buffy seems to just have her hand in the air and the fruit flies to it. She doesn't even look up. Willow and Tara's fruit is halted in the air above their heads and slowly floated down. Anya makes an oddly perfect baseball catch, pulling the fruit in to her body. Dawn lunges wildly, and ends up knocking over her pyramid, and half in the water, but the fruit is held triumphantly above her head.  
  
Distribution over, Oz settles himself down next to Xander, and pulls out a watermelon. "You're not planning to throw that at me, are you?" Xander asks in mock horror. Oz just quirks an eyebrow at him, and pulls out a knife from the bag. A few skilled cuts later, and the watermelon is ready to be eaten. The slices are dark pink, and drip a pale pink juice. Dark pips dot the flesh, and Xander's mouth is watering just looking at the thing. Oz mutely hands him a slice, and takes one for himself. The both prop themselves back on one elbow to eat, leaning toward eachother.  
  
Xander is a couple of bites into of crisp sweetness, when he pauses to wipe juice off his chin, and is captivated. Oz is eating his slice lazily. His bites aren't small, but they are neat, and deliberate - the opposite of the way a werewolf should eat, Xander thinks. Oz's hair is currently a red only a few shades darker than the watermelon, and it seems to Xander than the tongue that darts out now and again is the best shade of pink of them all.  
  
Oz seems to sense his eyes on him, and looks up to catch Xanders gaze. In the quiet way that Oz has, he holds it silently for a moment, then quirks his lips in the Oz equivilent of a full on grin, and goes back to eating. Flustered, Xander turns his attention back to his own watermelon. Now, though, he can't help glancing at Oz out of the corner of his eye. Crushes on guys are nothing new to Xander. He figured he is bi a long time ago, and is cool with it. But he's never done anything about it. The guys he liked were always unattainable, people he only saw from a distance. But Oz is a friend. Xander has never crushed on a friend before (spikedoesn'tcount), and he's never crushed on a guy he could actually envisage going out with.  
  
And Xander has never felt attraction this immediate and intense before. Watermelons have never been so interesting. His lack of concentration on eating means that he is slightly startled when a cold glob of watermelon flesh falls onto his own bare chest, followed by a cold trail of juice which runs down, just bypassing his nipple before going down to tickle his side. He jumps a bit, and this seems to get Oz's attention. Xander feels that Oz notices everything at once. The fruit on his chest, the trail of juice, the half-eaten watermelon, the surprised (guilty?) expression on Xander's face, and the slight tightening in the crotch of Xander's swim shorts.  
  
Oz quirks his lips again. And his eyebrow. Xander can't remember if he understands this expression, because there's a glint in Oz's eye that he knows he's never seen before. Before Xander can react, Oz has put his own melon aside, and is crawling foward in a manner that seems more feline than canine, but that doesn't really matter because ohgods he's leaning foward and licking the trail of juice. And the juice didn't go by it, but Oz is definatly paying a tad more attention to Xander's nipple than...and now he's moving up, and picking up the piece of watermelon on Xander's chest with his sharp teeth. It's swallowed quickly, and a last (utterly wolf-like) swipe of his tongue cleans the last of the juice from Xander's chin. He pauses, his face soclose to Xander's. Xander can taste his breath, which is both sweet and very Oz-like, and he can see the glint of yellow in Oz's eyes.  
  
It's not until Oz is back in his place, eating his slice again that Xander's brain starts again. He smiles shyly at Oz.   
  
And Oz smiles back. 


End file.
